Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Take in to consideration how much natural light you will lose inside the house from the roof of a screened in deck. We have a very light-filled living room with French doors that open to our deck. I had planned to screen in that deck, but realized we'd lose a lot of the natural light that I love. We ended up getting a cheap outdoor rug to throw down on the deck (to prevent bugs from coming up through the slats) and getting one of those coleman pop up screen gazebo things for around $100. The are actually pretty durable and can be strapped on to the deck so you don't have to worry about taking them down during high winds, etc. It has been perfect for allowing us to use the deck when it is really buggy outside, and we can still take it down easily in spring, fall, and winter when we want to really take advantage of that natural light inside.

You don't have to do a solid roof. You could put a roof of twin wall polycarbonate panels on, it's clear.

Or sunroof! Those are really pretty on porches.

The PP above about the extra sun screening is right, but also rain. We get rain that blows in a certain corner.

Anonymous wrote:Take in to consideration how much natural light you will lose inside the house from the roof of a screened in deck. We have a very light-filled living room with French doors that open to our deck. I had planned to screen in that deck, but realized we'd lose a lot of the natural light that I love. We ended up getting a cheap outdoor rug to throw down on the deck (to prevent bugs from coming up through the slats) and getting one of those coleman pop up screen gazebo things for around $100. The are actually pretty durable and can be strapped on to the deck so you don't have to worry about taking them down during high winds, etc. It has been perfect for allowing us to use the deck when it is really buggy outside, and we can still take it down easily in spring, fall, and winter when we want to really take advantage of that natural light inside.

You don't have to do a solid roof. You could put a roof of twin wall polycarbonate panels on, it's clear.

Take in to consideration how much natural light you will lose inside the house from the roof of a screened in deck. We have a very light-filled living room with French doors that open to our deck. I had planned to screen in that deck, but realized we'd lose a lot of the natural light that I love. We ended up getting a cheap outdoor rug to throw down on the deck (to prevent bugs from coming up through the slats) and getting one of those coleman pop up screen gazebo things for around $100. The are actually pretty durable and can be strapped on to the deck so you don't have to worry about taking them down during high winds, etc. It has been perfect for allowing us to use the deck when it is really buggy outside, and we can still take it down easily in spring, fall, and winter when we want to really take advantage of that natural light inside.

Oh, and make sure that everything you put on the porch or use in building the porch is made for being outdoors. Even though it will be covered, it has to hold up to the humidity and the rain that will come in through the screens during storms.

We had mold on our ceiling where they mudded and taped the seams between the ceiling panels.

We didn't do this, but the people we bought from did. Our deck turned screened porch is about 15x18. We have a seating area, a dining area, and kid toy storage.

Definitely get a fan. Have it centered over where you would put seating. We just moved our fan to make it more usable. Unless they rearranged for staging the house, the fan wasn't over their seating area either. It was over the walkway and pretty useless. make sure it is an outdoor fan, or it will rust and the blades will droop from all the moisture.

Have screening material placed below the deck boards to prevent bugs from coming up through the floor.

Consider how much lighting you will need. The only light fixture on our large porch is part of the ceiling fan. It is not enough light when it is dark out. We have Christmas lights strung on the perimeter of the ceiling to make up for it.

Consider how the sun will shine in early morning or late afternoon. We are planning on adding shades to the western side of the porch to block the late afternoon sun.

We are looking into screening in our back deck, mostly to create an area with shades and that is bug free! We are just looking for something basic' with a fan and a couple of outlets. Has anyone done this? Do you have any suggestions or things to think about